Education a missing piece in SME tax discussion

Educating small businesses around business management and compliance was all but ignored amid the continuation of a range of tax measures in the federal budget, according to an accounting software firm.

Commenting on the extension, Reckon managing director of Australia and New Zealand, Sam Allert, cited recent research it undertook that found that 91 per cent wanted the extension, but almost 40 per cent said they didn’t really know what to do with it.

“I'm impressed that they've extended it for one year. It probably would've been devastating if they hadn't have done that, but I would be more interested in extending it longer, and then looking at other ways to support small businesses,” Mr Allert said.

Mr Allert said he’d like to have seen more tax breaks and incentives for small business owners to invest in themselves and their employees in training and education, across areas including business management, accounting, compliance requirements, technology and data security.

He also mentioned education around reducing the black economy, especially given the amount of attention the government put towards the issue in the budget.

“I think that they've done some exciting things around the black economy, in terms of investing in the right area, because I think we all benefit if we reduce the black economy,” Mr Allert said.

“That's the reality. Even people getting educated about that for their business, and then having incentives or tax benefits to do that would be huge.”